Dr. OmiSoore Dryden
Dr. OmiSoore Dryden
Assistant Professor (On Leave - Visiting Professor at Ryerson University 2017-18) Women's, Gender, and Sexuality StudiesContact Information
935 Ramsey Lake Rd
Sudbury ON P3E 2C6
Education
- PhD, OISE/UT (Social Justice Education)
- MA, YorkU (Women’s Studies)
Research Interests
Blood, Blood donation, blackness (transnational and diasporic), sexuality (queer, transnational, and diasporic), queer diasporic studies, queer of colour critique, critical race theory, trans/national and diasporic studies.
Courses Taught
- WOMN 1005: Introduction to Women’s Studies
- WOMN 2456: Women’s Health Issues: Politics of Gender and Health
- WOMN 3015: Feminist Theories
- WOMN 2906: Special Topics: Queer, Trans, and Sexuality Studies
- WOMN 2045: Gender, Race, and Racism
Books Edited
Disrupting Queer Inclusion: Canadian Homonationalisms and the Politics of Belonging. Vancouver: UBC Press. Co-edited with Suzanne Lenon. (September 2015)
Refereed Journal Articles
2010
“Canadians Denied: A Queer Diasporic Analysis of the Canadian blood donor.” Atlantis: A Women’s Studies Journal. Spring 2010
– Reprinted in Ed. Diane Naugler. 2012. Canadian Perspectives in Sexualities Studies:Identities, Experiences, and the Contexts of Change. Oxford University Press. 271-277.
Book Chapters
“A Queer Too Far”: Blackness, Gay Blood and Transgressive Possibilities.” Eds. OmiSoore H. Dryden and Suzanne Lenon. Disrupting Queer Inclusion: Canadian Homonationalisms and the Politics of Belonging. Vancouver: UBC Press. (September 2015)
Other Publications (Non-Refereed)
2009
“Touching the Terror and Loathing of Difference: An Open Letter about our use of the Master’s Tools.” Women & Environments International Magazine, Special Issue: “XYZ Trans-formations of Urban Space: Transgendered and Transsexual Experiences of the City.” No. 78/79 Fall/Winter. 9 – 11.
2015
“Blood Out of Bounds.” NoMorePotlucks, Issue 40, self http://nomorepotlucks.org/site/blood-out-of-bounds-omisoore-h-dryden/
Invited Lectures
- 2015 “Black Queer Diaspora and the Decolonization of Blood Ties” Black+Queer+Human. Convened by Dr. R. Cassandra Lord and Dr. Rinaldo Walcott., October 7, 2015.
- 2014 “Black Blood, Black Death, Black Life” DearScienceAnd / Rejoicing the Black Creative Sciences / A Workshop. Convened by Dr. Katherine McKittrick. July 10 and 11, 2014
Invited Panelist
- 2015 #EndTheBan: Town Hall on the MSM Blood Ban. End the Ban Campaign at U of T. Toronto, Ontario. February 11, 2015
- 2014 (Moderator) “WTF is queer about Settler Colonialism, Racism and Homonationalism?” World Pride Conference, Toronto, Ontario. June 23, 2014
Conference Presentations
- 2015 “Blood Distortions, Dispossessed Citizenship: The blood donation ban of “African blood” and Black Feminist / Queer Diasporic Transformative Talk Back.” Annual National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) Precarity. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, November 12-15, 2015.
- 2015 “Roundtable: Black Queer Diaspora Praxis & its Manifold Futures.” Annual American Studies Association (ASA) The (Re)Production of Misery and the Ways of Resistance. Toronto, ON, October 8-11, 2015
- 2013 “Canadian Blackness: Strangely Articulated, Queerly Positioned.” Rethinking Race and Sexuality: Feminist Conversations, Contestations, Coalitions. Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University, Montreal, QC. April 18, 201
Prior to becoming an academic, OmiSoore Dryden held senior administrative position as the Sexual and Gender Diversity Advisor/Race and Ethnic Relations Advisor at York University.
Dr. Dryden is also a community organizer and activist.
Guilt is not a response to anger; it is a response to one’s own actions or lack of action. If it leads to change then it can be useful, since it is then no longer guilt but the beginning of knowledge. Yet all too often, guilt is just another name for impotence, for defensiveness destructive of communication; it becomes a device to protect ignorance and the continuation of things the way they are, the ultimate protection for changelessness. — (Audre Lorde).